"The Two Faces of International Assistance"

[From the Abstract]. The paper examines how international cooperation practices influence the policy-making processes in Central and Eastern Europe; the focus is on the consequences for the democratization projects of these states in general and in particular – for their elites’ autonomy. The analysis is based on a qualitative comparative study of the impact a security and an economic/governmental international organization, NATO and the EU, have had on two Central and East European countries – Poland and Romania – which were diametrically opposite with respect to their elites’ autonomy before the cooperation process began. The study traces the chronological development of the EU’s and NATO’s involvement in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the content of cooperation and how it impacts elite accountability and control. Furthermore, since international regimes could influence the way domestic forces exercise control over their elites, the paper also examines whether the institutionalization of the cooperation processes limits or encourages the elites’ autonomy by redistributing elites’ and domestic groups’ access to procedural and cognitive political resources. The procedural instruments examined include policy-making initiative and institutions, while the cognitive resources studied are ideas and information to monitor and evaluate government performance

From Recipients To Donors: New Europe Supports Democratization In The Neighborhood

Supporting the diffusion of democratic norms and practices around the globe has become a significant element of the security and foreign policies of many developed countries and of the operation of many international governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Therefore, a better understanding of this phenomenon is important; yet much of our knowledge about it comes from studying the activities of a handful of established Western democracies. Would fledgling non-Western democracies support democratization abroad? What would motivate such efforts, and how would they be undertaken? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these young democracy promoters, and how do their efforts compare with the activities of the established Western democracy promoters? I answer these questions by unraveling the puzzle of the quick turnaround by the Eastern European members of the EU from being primarily recipients of democracy promotion in the 1990s to promoters of democracy in the 2000s. The dissertation examines the activities of the Eastern European governmental and non-governmental actors supporting democratization abroad both bilaterally and through the EU. I argue that the local civic elites who prepared the democratic breakthroughs in the region subsequently became the norm entrepreneurs who championed the incorporation of democracy promotion into their country's foreign policy and then continued to advocate for keeping support for democracy abroad high on the agenda. I further find that the Eastern European civic activists have been motivated by a normative commitment to democracy, while the Eastern European official efforts are best understood as strategic foreign policy commitments. Despite their reputation as "idealist donors," the Eastern European governments have supported democracy abroad primarily to create a secure and stable international environment for their states. Moreover, both governmental and nongovernmental approaches to supporting democratization abroad have been based on strategic calculations about the pragmatic usefulness (rather than the normative appropriateness) of their transition experiences to the recipients' democratization needs. While Western donors are said to export models of democracy based on their domestic institutions, the Eastern European donors have promoted democratizaion recipes tested in their own recent transitions and selected to fit the needs of their recipients. In contrast to the Western one-size-fits-all and institution-centric approaches, the Eastern European approaches to democracy promotion vary according to the regime type of the recipient and pay more attention to the process of liberalization. Therefore, although they are young donors, the Eastern European democracies represent a new generation of democracy promoters that have avoided some of the mistakes for which Western donors have been criticized

From Principle to Pragmatism: The Motivational Life Cycle of Transnational Democracy and Human Rights Movements

This paper sets out to solve a puzzle: Why is it that some democracy and human rights groups choose to engage in transnational activism? Why are they investing in overcoming the significant financial, political, and cultural costs of working across borders? Previous works on social movements and non-state actors in international affairs disagree about why civic groups undertake transnational work. Some authors portray these groups as normatively motivated actors, guided by solidarity with activists abroad. Other authors describe those NGOs as pragmatic actors, chasing funding and valuing survival over their mission. This paper proposes a solution to this debate, asking: When do democracy and human rights NGOs choose to work transitionally for principled reasons and when do they act pragmatically? This paper develops and tests a theory of the motivations of democracy and human rights NGOs for participating in transnational activism, proposing that these motivations change over time and follow a cycle from principled to pragmatic. The argument here is that such activism emerges around a core of solidarity-motivated actors, but over time pragmatic considerations, such as obtaining resources and legitimacy, become a leading motivation for some of the latest projects of the movement. In other words, while both principled and pragmatic motivations drive the activism of democracy and human rights NGOs that work across borders, the overall importance of these two types of motivations to each transnational movement changes over time. The paper tests this theorization by explaining the transnational democracy and human rights activism of the NGOs from the Eastern European member-states of the EU. Transnational democracy and human rights activism represents a crucial case for both the principled and the pragmatic accounts of transnational activism, while the Eastern EU countries represent new cases against which to test and refine previous theories of transnational activism. These cases also correct a bias in this literature that regards non- Western societies primarily as recipients of such activism. This study makes two main contributions to the literature. First, the paper offers a solution to the debate about the motivation of democracy and human rights NGOs for engaging in transnational activism. Second, this paper addresses the general neglect of the normative leadership of non-Western/Eastern European societies and of their motivations for participating in the diffusion of the norms and values underlying the international liberal order

Crystal Structure of New Zinc-Hydroxy-Sulfate-Hydrate Zn₄(OH)₆SO₄·2–2.25H₂O

A theoretical model of the crystal structure of the newly obtained compound Zn4(OH)6SO4·2–2.25H2O based on the compilation of the crystal–chemical properties of two known zinc-hydroxy-sulfate phases—mineral namuwite and hemihydrate—is proposed. The single XRD data confirmed the model and determined the structure, with a trigonal symmetry SG of P-3, the unit cell with a = 8.3418(15) Å and c = 17.595(7) Å, and a cell volume of 1060.3(6) Å3, with Z = 2. The results show that the Zn4(OH)6SO4·2–2.5H2O crystal structure consists of an alternating paired octahedral–tetrahedral doubly decorated hydroxide layer with cationic vacancies and an aqueous interlayer

Mixed Oxides as Catalysts for the Condensation of Cyclohexanol and Benzaldehyde to Obtain a Claisen–Schmidt Condensation Product

Acid–base M2+MgAlO and M2+AlO mixed oxides (where M2+ = Mg, Cu, Co, Zn, and Ni) were obtained by thermal decomposition of the corresponding layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors and used as catalysts for cyclohexanol and benzaldehyde condensation under solvent-free conditions. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and temperature-programmed desorption of CO2 (TPD-CO2). Gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) was used for the identification and quantification of the product mixtures. In the reaction of cyclohexanol and benzaldehyde on M2+MgAlO and MgAlO catalysts, a 2,6-dibenzylidene-cyclohexanone was obtained as the main product as a result of consecutive one-pot dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone and subsequent Claisen–Schmidt condensation. In the reaction mixture obtained in the presence of NiAlO, CoAlO, and ZnAlO catalysts, a cyclohexyl ester of 6-hydroxyhexanoic acid was detected together with the main product. This is most likely a by-product obtained after the oxidation, ring opening, and subsequent esterification of the cyclohexanol

Eastern Partnership and the Preferences of New EU Member States

This paper tries to shed some light on factors influencing the positions of the new member states of the EU on Eastern Partnership in its initial phase. It utilises an analytical approach developed by Copsey and Haughton (2009) and argues that the two most important factors affecting positioning of newcomers towards the initiative are: perceived size and geography. While the new members were especially keen to support their immediate neighbours, they were using a common policy towards these countries to increase their presence and influence in the region since the initiative helped them to deal with neighbourhood issues they were not able to solve on their own. The paper suggests an amendment to the theoretical approach and proposes an assumption explaining positioning of the member states towards the third countries that better reflect the empirical evidence than the original framework. Moreover, the research showed that Poland differed from the rest of the new EU countries, was much more active and influential and rather resembled the old members. However, due to its not very positive image (caused by its assertive approach and strong effort to play a prominent role within the EU) its influence within the EU was limited and, therefore it proposed the Eastern Partnership together with Sweden that held a much better image